Friday, June 20, 2014

ThEph - Dan and Jamie Monaco Game Jam Idea

Dan Evangelakos mentioned that a lot of video games focus on shooting and killing because they like to focus on scandal - for instance in Monaco players work together to perform robberies.

So as we sat surrounded by Williams College, we thought - what's more scandalized than cheating?

In ThEph, players representing different majors can work together to steal problem sets, test answers, and even cutting edge research to complete their degrees and become successful in their field.

Students from each major will have individual powers - Math majors may have the power to distract Professors with complicated proofs, Computer majors may hack computers, Chemistry majors can use sleep vapors, Biology majors can release lab animals, and so on - their goal to retrieve the desired booty without raising too much suspicion, and escaping with absolutely no detection (being caught red handed would be an automatic violation of the honor code). Other characters would consist of faculty members walking around, doing work, chatting with other faculty, and constantly looking out for dishonest students. Approachability of these faculty will be measured in coffee levels displayed on the screen, coffee items may be found and offered to faculty to increase their happiness.

We would also like to restrict players to one item that can be used just once - limiting ways the players can retrieve information and therefore making it more of a puzzle game.

The environment will clearly be Science Quad, simplified to wall and hallway tiles.

Can't wait to keep you updated with the progress of ThEph, make sure you bring your mirrors - I hear the lasers in the Physics laboratories are pretty tricky to navigate.